§ I need only comment on the salient points in the results of 1922–23, and I will take revenue first. The Budget Estimate for Customs and Excise was £273,000,000. This represented a decrease of £51,000,000 on the Exchequer 1724 receipts of the previous year; £18,000,000 of this estimated decrease was due to the exclusion of Irish revenue; £5,000,000 to the reduction in last year's Budget of the duties on tea, coffee and cocoa; and balance of £28,000,000 to the allowance for continued industrial depression.
§ The actual receipts have been over £280,000,000, so that there is a surplus of more than £7,000,000. The true position is better since it is anticipated that when the necessary adjustments have been made with the Irish Free State in regard to the Customs and Excise Revenue for the past year, a further sum of about £3,000,000 will be found to be due to the Imperial Exchequer. The surplus is due mainly to beer, sugar, tobacco and the new Import Duties. There is also a small surplus under each of the heads of wine, matches and entertainments. Spirits are down on the Estimate, and there is a deficit on tea, consumption having failed to respond to the reduction in duty made last year.
§ The Inland Revenue duties, as a whole, have far surpassed the expectation of my predecessor, yielding an excess over the original Budget Estimate of £36,300,000. This arises from surpluses on Death Duties, £8,871,000: Stamps, £3,972,000, and Income Tax and Super-tax, £50,045,000. But there are deficits on the Excess Profits Duty of £25,796,000 and on Corporations Profits Tax of £773,000.
§ The Death Duty revenue is, of course, always subject to considerable variation, due to the irregular intervals at which the large estates subject to the higher rates of duty fall liable to taxation. In the past year large estates have been unusually numerous.
§ The surplus on the Stamps revenue arises mainly from the activity which Stock Exchange business has displayed uniformly throughout the year.
§ The yield of Income Tax and Super-tax is the most reliable index of the gradual emergence of industry and trade out of the depths of the 1920–21 depression. In the year 1921–22, collection proved difficult, and an unusually large amount remained in arrear at the close of the year. The figures of arrears were £99,000,000 for Income Tax and £23,500,000 for Super-tax. These particular arrears were, of course, in the main, cleared up in the early months of 1725 the year which has just closed; hut, what is more important, notwithstanding the retarding influence on current collection of a large volume of arrears, the progress.of the 1922–23 collection has been more rapid than that of the previous year, and more rapid than could have been forecast when the Estimates were framed a year ago. This acceleration of the current collection accounts for more than half of the surplus of £50,000,000. The remainder of this surplus arises from a number of causes, of which the most important is to be found in the fact that the volume of profits to be brought into assessment has substantially exceeded expectations.
§ The Excess Profits Duty has proved very disappointing. The gross collection amounted to only £57,000,000, in place of an expected receipt of £75,000,000. Repayments in the year came out approximately at £55,000,000, or £8,000,000 more than we anticipated. The system of payment by instalments, accompanied by a charge for interest, introduced by my predecessor, was brought into operation towards the end of last year, but has not, so far, yielded very satisfactory results. The interest charged during last year amounted to £3,500,000, of which only 21,250,000 was paid.
§ Special Receipts—always an uncertain item—show a deficit of nearly £39,000,000. This is mainly a postponement. Disposals realised £15,000,000 less than the Estimate, and other considerable accounts, such as the Food and Wheat Commission accounts, could not be liquidated during the year. Hon. Members may be interested in the main items of the £51,000,000 collected, which were as follows:
| £ | |
| Disposals | 26,780,000 |
| Sales of Ships and Freights | 4,500,000 |
| Reparation Recovery Act and other German Receipts | 6,800,000 |
| Repayment of Pre-Moratorium Bill Advances | 6,100,000 |